HELP!! 500: Server Error (Laravel) with zero information on why its not working...

Have you configured Wamp's Apache server to host your site and respond on port 8000 or are you attempting to use the small server included with laravel which is started via

php artisan serve

As the php server responds on port 8000 I suspect that this is the server that you are attempting to hit and it may not be running unless you issued the command above.

@DALMA - Yes I did start it via php artisan serve

Did you look at the error log? /storage/logs

@CRONIX - Yes. I looked at it before. I dont really understand it. Not sure if its relevant but:

in my env. file I had no APP_KEY so I generated one and pasted that in.

Also in the bootstrap>cache>config.php file the database array had some other database in there (forge) and not the database I had in the .env file. I also changed that to have the correct database too.

I dont know if those two things messed things up but I doubt it, because I was having the 500 error before I made those changes and I only made those changes to see if they would fix the error.

BTW: There's no issues with the database side of things (There are no problems with migrations etc).

The error log is as follows:

#1 D:\project\vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Encryption\EncryptionServiceProvider.php(48): tap(NULL, Object(Closure))

#2 D:\project\vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Encryption\EncryptionServiceProvider.php(24): Illuminate\Encryption\EncryptionServiceProvider->key(Array)

#3 D:\project\vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Container\Container.php(791): Illuminate\Encryption\EncryptionServiceProvider->Illuminate\Encryption\{closure}(Object(Illuminate\Foundation\Application), Array)

#4 D:\project\vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Container\Container.php(671): Illuminate\Container\Container->build(Object(Closure))

#5 D:\project\vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Container\Container.php(619): Illuminate\Container\Container->resolve('encrypter', Array)

#6 D:\project\vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Foundation\Application.php(757): Illuminate\Container\Container->make('encrypter', Array)

#7 D:\project\vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Container\Container.php(929): Illuminate\Foundation\Application->make('encrypter')

#8 D:\project\vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Container\Container.php(857): Illuminate\Container\Container->resolveClass(Object(ReflectionParameter))

#9 D:\project\vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Container\Container.php(822): Illuminate\Container\Container->resolveDependencies(Array)

#10 D:\project\vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Container\Container.php(671): Illuminate\Container\Container->build('App\\Http\\Middle...')

#11 D:\project\vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Container\Container.php(619): Illuminate\Container\Container->resolve('App\\Http\\Middle...', Array)

#12 D:\project\vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Foundation\Application.php(757): Illuminate\Container\Container->make('App\\Http\\Middle...', Array)

#13 D:\project\vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Foundation\Http\Kernel.php(215): Illuminate\Foundation\Application->make('App\\Http\\Middle...')

#14 D:\project\vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Foundation\Http\Kernel.php(189): Illuminate\Foundation\Http\Kernel->terminateMiddleware(Object(Illuminate\Http\Request), Object(Illuminate\Http\Response))

#15 D:\project\public\index.php(60): Illuminate\Foundation\Http\Kernel->terminate(Object(Illuminate\Http\Request), Object(Illuminate\Http\Response))

#16 D:\project\server.php(21): require_once('D:\\project\\publ...')

#17 {main} "}

run php artisan config:clear

It sounds like you cached the config, which should really only be done in production, not development. If you do it in development, you will need to run that command any time you change your .env file, because once the config is cached, it uses those values and totally ignores .env. You'd also need to do that on production, but usually you only do that once during a deployment.

https://laravel.com/docs/5.8/configuration#configuration-caching

@CRONIX - @CRONIX - I ran php artisan config:clear

It still gives a 500 error...

I just did a "new laravel" command and started a new project from scratch and I dont get the 500 error for that project.